Researchers Employ New Test to Estimate Concussion Risk for Helmets

Football equipment managers nationwide will receive yet another reason to reassess their helmet inventory on Tuesday, when a Virginia Tech research report reveals that two models popular among teenagers might be allowing high rates of concussions.

The Riddell VSR-4, a recently discontinued model still worn by about 75,000 high school and college players, and the Adams A2000, a less prevalent helmet now available for purchase, were the lowest-ranked models in a new testing regimen designed to estimate concussion risk. The full results were to appear on a Virginia TechWeb site as the first publicly available objective data on football helmet performance.

Industry experts have various degrees of concern about the reliability of the system, but the researchers said they were trying to pull the curtain back on the mysteries of helmet performance. Recent concerns about industry testing standards and specific companies’ advertising has led to an investigation by the United States Consumer Product Safety Commission and possibly the Federal Trade Commission.

“Currently, if you go to buy a helmet, all you’re looking at are aesthetics and price, and whatever the manufacturer tells you to try to convince you it’s good,” said Stefan Duma, Virginia Tech’s lead biomedical engineer on the project. “We wanted to develop a system to quantify which helmets perform better specifically with risk of concussion.”

The only standardized test on helmets today assesses whether a helmet might allow a skull fracture, not a less serious injury like a concussion. It is overseen by the National Operating Committee on Standards for Athletic Equipment, a volunteer group that includes manufacturers and other interested parties.

Riddell’s Revolution Speed model earned a five-star rating on the Virginia Tech scale, followed by five four-star helmets made by Riddell, Schutt and Xenith. Only helmets designed for players of high school age and older were examined.

“For example, half our team is in the VSR-4 — and there is a significant reduction in concussion risk in newer helmets, so by fall ball we’re going to be in new ones,” Duma said of the Virginia Tech football team. A prominent college program having used outdated helmets would indicate how rural high schools might be affording players inferior protection.

Virginia Tech has for eight years had players at college programs nationwide wear helmets outfitted with accelerometers to track the number and severity of hits to the head, as well as documented concussions. That data indicates, for example, how a side impact that results in 100 g’s of force reaching the skull leads to a diagnosed concussion 1 percent of the time.

Helmet models were drop-tested from five heights to assess how much force they allow to reach the skull; the lower that force, the lower the risk of concussion, and the better the helmet scored. The methodology has been peer reviewed and accepted for publication by the Annals of Biomedical Engineering.

As an example of the use of his system, Duma said, “You can cut your risk of concussion 55 percent by switching from the VSR-4 to the Xenith X1.”

Critics have cited several limitations of Virginia Tech’s approach. It does not consider rotational forces believed to cause a substantial number of concussions. The data collection from players came through helmets designed by Riddell, perhaps skewing results. Additionally, only some concussions get reported, so the injury’s true prevalence remains too much of a mystery to justify such exact statements.

“I’m unmoved by this information, and I would say that no matter how our helmet was ranked,” said Xenith’s chief executive, Vin Ferrara, whose X1 model was ranked among the most protective available. “We find this type of ranking concept to be detrimental to consumer understanding and detrimental to the development of superior helmets.”

Schutt said in a statement: “We have not seen any relationship between testing results and the accurate prediction of what is happening on the field. There are many questions to be asked about this testing.”

Adams’s chief executive, David Wright, did not respond to requests for comment regarding the company’s A2000 helmet.

Riddell’s Dan Arment praised Virginia Tech for affirming performance differences between helmet models; as for the company’s low-performing VSR-4, he said users could trade in that helmet and receive $50 off a Revolution model.

Helmet companies have for years agreed among themselves not to disclose this type of testing data to the public because of how it can be misinterpreted. This has led to spurious advertising claims and other practices currently under government examination.

Duma said the public needed an independent compass to make more educated decisions on football head protection. He also emphasized how even the best head protection can still allow injuries like concussions and that individual athletes’ risks can vary because of genetic differences and prior injuries.

A version of this article appears in print on May 10, 2011, on page B11 of the New York edition with the headline: Researchers Employ New Test to Estimate Concussion Risk for Helmets. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe